Spotted In The West Bank: Giraffes

April 28, 20081:56 PM ET

David Gura

There is a small zoo in Qalqilya, in the West Bank. It was built in 1986, just before the first Palestinian intifada, with space for Shetland ponies, vervet monkeys, an ibex and a hyena, and several dozen other animals. Since then, it has fallen into disrepair. There are few visitors. And the zoo gets a fraction of the funding it needs.

Dr. Sami Khader, "the only zoo veterinarian in the Palestinian territories," is the subject of a new book by Amelia Thomas, The Zoo on the Road to Nablus. He hopes that the last Palestinian zoo will be one of the best in the world. Thomas joins us today, at the end of the second hour, to talk about Khader and the zoo. If you've traveled to the West Bank, have you seen it?